We're summoning Zords and performing gymnastics
in the middle of combat, that's right,
it's Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid,
by Renegade Games Studios.
(upbeat jazz music)
This co-op capeless crusade
pits two to five Power Rangers against Rita Repulsa,
and her army of monsters and Putty foot soldiers.
Players use their energy and Power Ranger skills
to defeat Rita's forces before they overwhelm Angel Grove.
But can you blame her, with a last name like Repulsa?
I'm on her side.
Setup begins with a command center
in the middle of the table.
Randomly place the four location boards
around the command center.
Form a supply of game tokens nearby.
You'll need the combat dice,
damage tokens, panic tokens, energy tokens,
Lead Ranger and Megazord token, and the enemy figurines.
Next, place the power board nearby,
and set the power marker to zero.
Shuffle the five regular Zord cards to form the Zord deck.
Add the Megazord card to the bottom,
and place the deck face down on the power board.
Next each player chooses a Ranger
and takes the corresponding Ranger figure,
character card and ten combat cards.
They also take two action tokens and one energy token,
which is their limit throughout the game.
They then shuffle the ten cards
and place them face down
to create their personal combat deck.
During this step, the player may draw up to five cards
to form their starting hand.
Create the opponents of the game
by shuffling the 20 foot soldier deployment cards,
then divide them into four piles
of five cards each, face down.
Take the monster deployment cards, randomly select two,
and shuffle one of each into the second and third piles.
Shuffle the boss deployment card into the fourth pile.
Stack these piles left to right to form the deployment deck.
Take the enemy decks for the two types of foot soldiers,
and shuffle them separately, creating a deck for each.
Set aside the monster and boss decks for now.
Gameplay is divided into rounds, each split into two phases.
The deployment phase,
where enemies attack various locations,
inflicting panic on the citizens of Angel Grove,
and the action phase, where the Power Rangers take actions
to stop Rita's armies.
In the deployment phase,
the players will reveal five enemy deployment cards,
one at a time, from the top of the deployment deck.
The revealed card will indicate the number of figures
that need to be placed on the board.
And the back of the next card on the stack
determines their location.
For example, these two Putty Patrollers
will deploy at Angel Grove High.
Each location in Angel Grove has a figure limit.
The number of enemies that can be present
before the area erupts into chaos.
If a location ever contains more enemy figures
than its figure limit,
(bell dings) the area becomes panicked!
(exhales)
Place a panic token on that space.
When revealing cards from the deployment deck,
if the next card on the stack is a monster or boss card,
reveal that card as well,
instantly deploying the foot soldiers,
and that monster or boss, to the next card's location.
Additionally, whenever a monster or a boss
deploys at a location,
that area immediately become panicked.
One thing to note, if an enemy would be deployed
on an area that is already panicked,
they instead move to the next location on the board
in a clockwise direction.
Once the deployment is complete,
all foot soldier cards can be shuffled
and placed on the bottom of the deployment deck.
Remove any monster or boss deployment cards from the game,
'cause they can only spawn once.
Next, in the action phase, the Power Rangers take actions
to save Angel Grove.
Like many co-op games, the player team
can take turns in whichever order they agree upon.
By flipping one of their action tokens face down,
a Ranger may take one of three actions.
Move, battle, or recover.
Move allows the player
to move their Power Ranger figure
to any other location on the board, regardless of distance.
Movement to the locations in Angel Grove
means the Power Ranger will be able
to battle with the enemies there, on a subsequent action.
When moving to the command center,
the Power Ranger may power up,
shuffling together all the cards in their deck,
hand, and discard pile, then drawing back up to five cards.
When powering up, they also receive one energy token,
if they are depleted.
The battle action initiates a battle between the Rangers
and enemies in that location.
Whomever used an action to initiate the battle,
takes the Lead Ranger token.
But, other players in that location
are involved in the battle as well.
I'll come back to battle details in a second.
The third possible action, recover,
allows a player to choose up to six shields worth of cards
in their discard pile,
and shuffle them back into their combat deck,
and replenish
one energy token (electric pulse)
from the supply, if they are depleted.
Once all Power Rangers have flipped all their action tokens,
the round is over, and a new one begins
with another deployment phase.
This continues until the players either win the game,
or are defeated.
Before we delve into win conditions,
let's talk about fightin'!
(exclaims)
Battles resolve over four steps.
First, Ranger preparation.
Take two energy tokens from the supply,
and place them on the power board,
creating what is known as the shared energy pool,
which I believe connects us all.
No? Okay.
Next, each Ranger in the battle
may draw up to a hand limit of five cards
from their combat deck, in order to prep for the fight.
Second, enemy preparation.
Based on the number of foot soldiers at that location,
reveal cards from the corresponding enemy deck,
in a face-up row from left to right.
Any cards revealed in this way
that contain the fast designation,
automatically go to the left of the row.
If any monsters or bosses are at the current location,
draw four cards from their unique enemy deck
in the same fashion,
but in its own row above the foot soldiers.
Third, enemy and Ranger turns.
Now the combatants will alternate turns fightin' each other.
If the enemies have any fast cards, they go first.
Otherwise, the Power Rangers take the first turn.
On Ranger turns, one Ranger may play
a single combat card from their hand,
spending energy tokens from the shared energy pool,
or their personal supply, equal to the cost
in the top-left of the card.
The card then resolves
and goes to that player's discard pile.
Combat cards include: attacks, for damaging the enemy.
Maneuvers, to gain the upper hand.
And reactions, which can be played out of turn order
if their conditions are met.
When dealing damage to enemies,
place hit tokens on that enemy's card.
If the hit tokens meet or exceed its health,
that enemy is defeated, and flipped face down.
When defeating a foot soldier,
move the figure to the experience track on the power board.
In order to defeat a monster,
the Rangers must defeat four of that monster's cards.
For the boss, it requires six defeated cards.
When defeating a monster,
the remaining foot soldiers in that location
are returned to the supply.
During the enemy turns,
resolve the active enemy card on the top leftmost card,
and then rotate it 90 degrees.
Defeated enemy cards don't do anything
during their resolution step.
Damage dealt by enemies
goes to one Ranger of the group's choosing.
When suffering damage, the targeted Ranger
reveals the top card from their combat deck,
and counts the shields on the bottom right.
If the number of shields is greater than the damage,
that card is placed on the bottom of the Ranger's deck.
If the number of shields equals the amount of damage
that card is discarded.
If the number of shields is less than the damage,
that card is discarded,
and then the Ranger must reveal another card
to resolve the remaining damage comin' at them,
until all the damage is resolved in this way.
If a Ranger's deck is ever depleted, they are defeated.
They return to the command center,
and remove one energy token from the command center supply.
They shuffle their hand and discard pile
into a new combat deck, and draw up to five cards.
They may also take an energy token if they are depleted.
Once all the enemy cards have been resolved,
the Rangers get one more turn.
Then, the battle moves to the cleanup step.
If any energy tokens are still in the shared energy pool,
the participating Rangers may each take one
if they are depleted and the rest go back to the supply.
All foot soldier enemy cards
and undefeated monster and boss cards,
are shuffled back into their decks.
Defeated monster and boss cards
are placed in face-up discard piles
and count towards their ultimate demise.
Finally, if the location is panicked, but no enemies remain,
the panic token is removed.
(exclaims)
Stress-free baby.
Over on the power board, if the experience track
is ever filled with foot soldiers,
or if a monster is defeated, the Rangers can summon a Zord.
When this happens, draw the top card from the Zord deck,
and award it to the Ranger of the matching color.
Return the foot soldiers to the supply.
Zords have one-per-round abilities
that can be used by rotating the card 90 degrees.
Zord cards all refresh at the end of the action phase.
Pretty sweet.
Whenever a Zord is summoned,
also move the power marker on the track one space.
As soon as the tracker reaches six,
the Megazord is summoned, and any Ranger my use its ability.
After Megazord is summoned, defeated foot soldiers
no longer go on the experience track.
Play continues with the Rangers dukin' it out with the enemy
until one of three endgame conditions are met.
If all four locations are panicked, the Rangers lose.
If a Ranger is defeated,
and the command center has no energy tokens remaining,
the Rangers lose!
But.
If the Rangers can defeat the boss card and survive,
(Rita Repulsa screams) they win the game.
And that's Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid.
I'm Becca Scott,
and I think Bulk and Skull were just insecure,
and that's why they turned out how they did
so maybe we should go easy on 'em huh?
Huh?
Anyway, you can watch me and my friends
play this game and other awesome games on Game the Game.
That's right here on Geek and Sundry.
We'll see ya there.
(upbeat keyboard music)
(chiming techno music)